European Parliament election, 2009 (Austria)
Overview
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
to the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
in 2009. Austria will have 17 seats in the European Parliament, instead of 18 that the country had before the re-allocation of seats.
Through the Lisbon Treaty the number of seats be was graded to 19,
so the Parties SPÖ and BZÖ got additional seats
which are currently Observer MEPs.
The SPÖ
Social Democratic Party of Austria
The Social Democratic Party of Austria is one of the oldest political parties in Austria. The SPÖ is one of the two major parties in Austria, and has ties to trade unions and the Austrian Chamber of Labour. The SPÖ is among the few mainstream European social-democratic parties that have preserved...
announced that their frontrunner will be current MEP Hannes Swoboda
Hannes Swoboda
Hannes Swoboda aka Johannes Swoboda is an Austrian social democratic politician. He has been a Member of the European Parliament since 1996...
.
The ÖVP
Austrian People's Party
The Austrian People's Party is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Austria. A successor to the Christian Social Party of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it is similar to the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in terms of ideology...
surprisingly selected former Interior Minister Ernst Strasser
Ernst Strasser
Ernst Strasser is a former Austrian People's Party politician and Federal Minister of the Interior in Austria , and was a Member of the European Parliament...
to lead their party.
Quotations
All men have a right to remain in a state of nature as long as they please; and in case of intolerable oppression, civil or religious, to leave the society they belong to, and enter into another.
The Rights of the Colonists (1772)
In regard to religion, mutual toleration in the different professions thereof is what all good and candid minds in all ages have ever practised, and, both by precept and example, inculcated on mankind.
The Rights of the Colonists (1772)
The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on Earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only to have the law of nature for his rule.
The Rights of the Colonists (1772)